Improvement in railroad-car springs



A. BRIDGES.

Car Spring. NG. 36,050. lPatemed July 29. 1862.

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N, PEIERS. PHOTo-LITHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON D C V UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

ALBERT BRIDGES, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGN OR TO HIMSELF AND ALFRED BRIDGES, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD-CAR SPRINGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,050, dated Julyl29, 1862.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, ALEERTBEIDGES, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Railroad-Car Springs and Trucks; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, which has been prepared with a view to the obtaining of Letters Patent for the invention.

The accompanying gures forni a part of this specification. l Y

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of my truck. Fig. 2 represents a cross-section on line S S. Fig. 3 represents aportion on a longitudinal section on the line T T. v

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figures; and to enable others skilled in the art to makeand use my invention I will proceed to describe it, with reference to the drawings and the letters thereon.

The wood-work of my truck and the relation of the truck to the car which it is to support differ little if atall necessarily, from the ordinary construction.

A represents what I term the truck-beams, 7 and B the bearing-beams, between which the bolster may be supported upon springs or oth erwise in the ordinary manner. Ordinary jaws, a a, bolted to A,guidethe boxesC of the axles, as usual.

M N are the springs. The material is welltempered steel, and the action is torsional or twisting, so as necessarily to subject every portion to an equal amount of strain and allow the entire spring to be worked to its fullest capacity before any part shall break or set. The form of these springs is that of shafts extending continuously across the truck. Each is free to turn in four bearings or brackets, l 2 3 4., and each is rigidly iixed, by suitable keys or otherwise, to three arms or levers, E F G, the arms E and F being near the opposite ends of the shaft and the arm G being at the center, their proper relative positions when in place bearing the load being shown in the iigures.

The end brackets, l and 4, are bolted or otherwise firmly fixed to the truck-beams A.- They may be cast or otherwise connected together in such manner thatthebracketlof the spring M shall brace and support the corresponding bracket 1 of the spring N, if desired.

The center brackets, 2 and 3, are bolted or otherwise firmly iixed to the bearing-beams B. They are cast together, as represented in Fig. 3, so that the bracket 2 of the spring M shall brace and support the corresponding bracket 2 of the spring N. This is necessary, because the great strain tending to draw together these brackets cannot be supported by the wood-work ofthetruck alone without a liability to spring or permanently bend the centers of the bearing-beams B B inward toward each other. With the unity of the parts as represented, the bearing-beams have simply to support the trifling weight of the parts, the entire horizontal strain due to the action of the shafts or springsM N being supported by the rigidity of the casting 22.

H is a stout bolt, with a stout nut and jamnnt, which connects the lower extremities of the arms G G, as represented.

The` construction and arrangement of the several parts as represented allows the bolt H to move horizontally forward or back as the shafts M N rock in their central bearings, 2 and 3, so that the entire apparatus acts as an equalizinglever between the car-axles-that is to say, if one axle lifts to surmount any obstruction on the track or in passing any inequality, the springs,not of that axle alone, but of both that and the other axle, contribute their elasticity to soften the shock.

The construction and arrangement of the several parts as represented also allow the tension of all the springs to be simultaneously increased and diminshed at pleasure by simply operating the nut and jam-nut on the bolt II. The set of the springs may thus be very readily adjusted.

My shafts M N may be made in any form desired to facilitate the effects herein described. 'Ihey may be both round, as represented by M, or square, as represented by N, or may be fiattened to any desired extent; or they may, if convenient, be made in a square or other form by applying together a number of thin plates of proper width, each produced and tempered separately. This latter construction is preferable for some reasons, and is represented by the vertical lines across N in Fig. l.

If itbe desired, and it is frequently in the construction of cars and trucks, to allow the kingpin of the ear to project down through the center of the truck to a lower level than the bolt H, it can be allowed without any disarrangement of my several parts by simply substituting a suitable slotted bar or alarge yoke in the place of the straight bolt H. In such ease the king-pin is allowed to extend down through the slot or yoke, and both ends of the latter are adapted 4to receive nuts and jamnuts or some equivalent means of securing them after their insertion through the arms G.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is,-

l. The employment in railroad-ear trucks of torsional springs so mounted and arranged as to operate substantially in the manner herein set forth N, or their equivalents, in combination with y arms G E F, or their equivalentaaud with a ear-truek, so thatthe equalizing effect shall be obtained, substantially as described.

ALBERT BRIDGES.

AWi tnesses':

G. H. BABeoeK, EUGENE H. FALEs.

pp, f 

